Photos whoo!
I forgot to take my camera when I went to Berlin but Lynne and Claire took loads of photos and finally gave me cds with them on last weekend so I can start showing what we did.
Our first day all of us together was the only day without snow. It was also the day I had pre planned for us to be really touristy.
We met up at Alexanderplatz to have breakfast in the rotating cafe at the top of the TV tower. The TV tower was built in East Berlin so that it could be seen from the West as a symbol of the dominance/greatness of the East.
And apparently has great views over Berlin, My plan had been that it would be a great starting point for our holiday. Unfortunately, on the day we arrived we couldn't even see the top of the TV tower for all the fog - there was absolutely no view - we wouldn't have gone up at all if we weren't intending to eat there but the novelty, decent breakfast and slight feeling of seasickness in the rotating restaurant were still worth the trip up the tower. Breakfast was fairly expensive but generous enough I would recommend it if you are traveling to Berlin but wish you a better view.
Next stop of the day was to wander along Unter den Linden on our way to the free tour meeting point at Brandenburg gate.
Free walking tours run everyday and last 3 and a half hours - with a break. It was a bit of an endurance test on the freezing cold day that we did it but we say lots of things we wouldn't have known to look for or been able to find otherwise. Our tour guide was excellent - very knowledgeable and interesting. They work for tips and probably do quite well out of it. We tipped 5 euro each but it was probably worth more. The guides do try to promote the tours that do cost money so I guess that makes them some money too. I had two favourite stories from the trip. 1.
http://www.berlin101.com/?p=41 Neue Wache - The sculpture inside was made my a mother after she had effectively signed her sons death warrant. The son wanted to join the army but was too young to join without parental permission. The parents signed to give permission and he died shortly after enlisting. 2. The book burning memorial
http://www.newberlintours.com/nbt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=98&lang=en (this link is from the company that led our tour too) Einstein had had to flee as he was a Jew - the book burning happened right outside the university that he worked at and his former collegues and students took part.
One of the most moving parts of the tour was this memorial to the murdered Jews. It covers a huge area at the side of a busy street and within view of the German parliament building. Our guide felt this was important. The Government and Berliners pass by and see this everyday - It is a constant reminder of the horrors of their past.
The experience of walking around the memorial is very unsettling. The ground is uneven and the blocks different heights, lengths and widths. Claire and I got a bit panicked when we kept coming across fences in every direction we turned and thought we would be stuck/lost in the middle for a long time. The designer of the memorial hasn't said much about what he intended - our guide thinks that the feeling of walking around it goes a good way to invoke feelings of uncertainty, confusion and helplessness such as the Jews of the time may have experienced. The plan is that the other groups targeted by the Nazis will all receive their own memorials. A few days later, across the road from this in Tiergarten we found a similar looking block but with a peep hole, inside it showed a film of two men kissing. We didn't find out if this was a memorial to the murdered homosexuals.
I need to get dressed and go to work now - I had time to spare when I started this post but have more than used it up. I sign off from this day with another image from our tour. One of the last bits of Berlin wall.
Day four was hogmanay. So we had a relaxing day to save our energy for the night. We made a second attempt to visit the Reichstag Dome but it was closed due to being covered in snow. Lynne and I shopped for dinner (it was stressful) we made some soup and ate crisps, drank Sekt and then headed out to the huge outdoor party at Brandenburger tor. The photos below show us eating dinner in the flat then on our way to the street party.
